Die.



Patented Sept. 8, 1914J vso .-z, z L anonse n. ru'rnAivi, or'sr'mffLoUIs; iLtIssotrnI.` f j ,v1

i 'specification of Letters Patent.

Patelid sepas, 1914.

T0 aZZ 'whom it may concem: i

Be it known that I, GEORGE D. PU'L'NAM, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have'V flangesso that said flanges and said intervening depression form a handholdtending to crowd together, and away from both edges, the fingers of theoperator, thus pre- Venting the fingers from becoming extended acrossthe edges of the die.

The function and Superior utility of' the construction are apparent whenit is considered that such construction constitutes an efficientsafeguardto prevent injury to the hands of the user; that suchconstruction enables the user more firinly to grasp and manipulate thedie; and that such construction considerably reduces the weight and Iquantity of material in the die, and also reduces the cost and expenseof manufacture of the die.

In the accompanying drawing in which 1 have illustrated a die embodyingthe principles of my invention-Figure l is a perspective Viewillustrating a die of the type used by shoe manufacturers, constructedin accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a cross sectional View oflthe die illustrating the extended upper and lower portions by which allof the fingers of the hand grasping the die will be pressed togetheragainst the intermediate unobstructed outer surface of the web.

The dieis in the form of a continuous integral wall and includes a lowerbody portion l having a Vertical inner surface 2 and a oblique outersurface 3, and terminating in a cutting edge 4:. The upper portion 5V ofthe die is integrally connected with the lower portion by a relativelythin web 6 so unbroken peripheral surface joined by inclines with thesurfaces of the that the lower portion 1 and the upper portron 5 presentoutwardly upper and lower peripheral Iianges between which is theintervening, depressed, unbroken peripheral surface oftheweb 6. `Theinner vwalls of the upper and lower and intermediate parts of the dieare in the lsame Vertical plane,

so that pressure applied to the upper porton 5 of the die will betransmitted directly to the cutting edge 4. i

The web 6 is essentially of considerable width, so that all, or anumber, of the fingersv of the hands may be grasped upon the web 6between the upper portion 5 and the lower portion 1 of the die. At theunion of Vthe web 6 and the lower portion-1 a sloping or inclined wall 7is formedi so that the lower fingers of the hands grasping the die willbe pressed away from the Cutting edge of the die. Similarly, a slopingor inclined wall 8 is formed atl the union ofthe web 6 with the -V upperportion 5 of the die.

VVhen the die is manually engaged all of the fing'ers of the handsgrasping the die will be pressed together onto the web 6 and away fromthe edges of the die, thus efliciently gu arding and protecting thehands and preventing the fingers from slipping over the edges of thediev and becoming mangled.. The entire outer surface of the web 6presents an intervening, depressed, unbroken peripheral surface which isjoined with the flanges 1 and 5 by the inclined walls 7 and 8 so thatsaid peripheral surface is essentially devoid of any projections orelevations which would tend to spread or slip any of the `fingers towardeither of the edges of the die should the fingers not be accurately andprecisely placed when they are engaged on the die. The construction ofmy improved die thus eliminates all danger of the fingers slippingtowar'd the edges of the die and becoming mutilated or mangled due toany carelessness or oversight ofv the user `in grasping the die. Also,all of the fingers are pressed together away from the edges of the die,thusy dispensing with the high degree of care necessary to avoidaccidents with the use of dies of different construc-V tion.

ters Patent is- A cutting die, comprising a continuousV integral wall,thicker above and thinner in its middle and presenting outwardly an up-What I claim and desire to secure by Letj

